Twitter developer Alex Payne made a fairly transparent post about how Twitter is working to fix its performance issues and ongoing development work. If you love Twitter, read the entire post.
Here’s what stuck out the most to me :
I’m constantly exploring new technologies, and I’ve also enjoyed working with Merb and Google App Engine for small projects recently.
Hmmm… Google. Twitter. Twitter. Google. Salvation?
Would You Still Use a Googlefied Version of Twitter?
Is it any coincidence that Twitter just received a round of $15 million VC funding in a $80 million valuation and now they are making announcements, dropping a hint that they are working with Google?
Google wants to be social. And Twitter is social.
Twitter, at an $80 million valuation, has perhaps given 25% of its company up for $20 million in total funding. That’s a rather large chunk of a business for funding development to keep their simple messaging system afloat.
If they do not find a way to monetize, they’re going to probably keep having more problems and sell off more chunks of the farm.
Google has proven that they can monetize conversations with GMail and GTalk. Should we be expecting a test of AdSense on Twitter anytime soon?
Comments
17 responses so far ↓
MrCooker on May 30, 2008 at 9:29 am
Once again Google digging in where others do not.
I won’t be surprised to see some Google ads on Twitter.
Michael Dorausch on May 30, 2008 at 10:14 am
Twitter Japan launched with ads (I believe by Google) so it may be interesting to find out what feedback that is getting. I’d have no problems with ad displays if it meant the service would perform more stabily.
Jon Kelly on May 30, 2008 at 10:18 am
I would gladly trade greater uptime for fees and/or ads. Free twitter — 1 of N posts in your feed is a clearly labeled ad. Pay twitter — no ads.
Sharon Bray-McPherson on May 30, 2008 at 10:40 am
Yes, I would still use Twitter if Google ads appeared. Just because the ads are there doesn’t mean I’m being forced to click on them. Although, if it helped monetize Twitter, which in turn helped improve Twitter, I’d probably click something that interested me.
Sharon Bray-McPherson
David Brown on May 30, 2008 at 10:54 am
I think it would depend on the number of characters the ad’s were displayed in - if the ad’s outweigh the actual tweets then - no.
Hard to say though… most of us can tune the ads out completely - banner blindness and all ;)
.02
db
Loren Baker, Editor on May 30, 2008 at 11:39 am
@David Brown : Good point NEO. Perhaps the ads should also be translated into Twitter speak for high click thrus.
DazzlinDonna on May 30, 2008 at 11:54 am
Ugh, I would prefer anyone but Google to attach themselves to Twitter.
Loren Baker, Editor on May 30, 2008 at 12:07 pm
@DazzlinDonna What about AOL? :)
Barry Welford on May 30, 2008 at 12:53 pm
No problem with Adsense ads provided they’re not ‘in your face’ so that the extremely simple user experience of Twitter is not compromised.
Social Marketing Journal on May 30, 2008 at 2:29 pm
It seems sad to us that in order to play with the big boys these days, that one must “sell out” in order to do so.
Larry on May 30, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I would keep using it and if it enhances Twitter’s performance all the better.
Diabetes Blog on May 30, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Give me 100% uptime and don’t take away from the user experience and I’m good with it.
It’s like how CoComment is now running shitty ads in their comment box but at least the service is solid.
Hull Web Design on Jun 2, 2008 at 7:42 am
Google is great an all, but more and more I get the feeling that Google is simply getting too big. Everywhere I go I hear about Google. They seem to take over nearly every promising startup out there, they’re becoming a bit of a Microsoft, running a monopoly.
jay paul on Jun 3, 2008 at 6:14 am
I Think, twitter (pure social) should take care to manage adwords in profile or any where in the site with out disturb to current social workers or Unique visitors.
twitter’ve got very good developer and management team , but lets see if we can get more benifits with twitter and google.
Thanks
Paul
Opi on Jun 3, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Taking into consideration that Google acquired Ev’s first venture (Blogger), and that by delivering ads in Twitter (with the right algorithm) Google can get an access a very targeted audience at the right time, (very similar to text messaging?), it makes perfect sense for Google to eventually acquire Twitter. I made a case for this in a blog post I wrote back in early April. Facebook could also benefit by a Twitter acquisition, but they still have ways to go developing their own platform, so Google is the natural suitor.
Milos on Jun 4, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Google have bought Jaiku, and since then I haven’t heard a word about Jaiku although I have like it more then twitter, but somehow they have just stopper after Google deal?!
Mindy on Jun 10, 2008 at 9:12 am
There are a lot of social media startups that launched with a great idea and no way to make money. At some point all of these sites will have to find ways to pay back the investors and pay their own salaries or sell up to larger companies. Personally, I prefer the idea of a vast array of social media sites to choose from than 2 or 3 large networks with every possibility folded into one brand.
Leave a Comment